Hi all I'm new here.. Please help me as I'm about to build a new gaming rig.. The processor or I choose is the Q6850 as 9650 is damn costly! I'm confused about which chipset to go for and which RAM? Should I go for the P35, X38 or the nvidia 680i or 780i Should I go for the DDR 2 RAM or DDR3? I'm investing in a 4 GB RAM It would be better if I go for the one which supports both DDR 2 and DDR3 right? I singled out the Asus P5KC the other day! Whats your opinion on that? I would like to put an 8800 gt or a gts. But the asus page says p5kc has ATI crossfire. Strange for an intel p35 to have crossfire. My question is, will this board support the nvidia 8800? Please suggest any boards which support DDR2 and DDR3 ASUS is preferable Thanks in advance!! Love & Respect Chao!
OK, this is a pretty common question. I should make a thread to be stickied with chipset info lol. Basically what you wil be looking at two companies for the chipset. Either Intel or Nvidia (yes part of Intel now, but still..) The choice of chipset you get depends on what you plan on doing. As far as overclockers go the p35 chipset is the best out there. If you plan on using two Nvidia cards in SLI the 680i or 780i will do. If you plan on using two ATI cards the x38 would work quite well. So if you plan on running a single 8800GT/S then getting a p35 should suite you just fine. They are cheap, amazing performers, and quite stable. If you plan on SLI'ing two 8800GTs then get the 680i chipset as the 780i just has three SLI'ing PCI-ex slots, but the 8800GTX is the only model that offers three way SLI at the moment I believe. And for two or more ATI cards I recommend the x38 or 780a (notice the "a".) You can get a triple card configuration crossfire. Then again if you're going to spend that kind of money on an ATI setup, might as well go Spyder and get all ATI hardware.
Thanks for your reply. That really helped. But I still have some doubts regarding the RAM. Please suggest whether I should go for DDR2 or DDR3 RAM. Also tell me whether the crossfire thing in ASUS P5KC mobo will support Nvidia GPU's or not. Thanks in advance.
Hi, You can use the Nvidia video card in the crossfire motherboard. The pci-express slots will function normally, but you will not be able to use 2 Nvidia cards in SLi mode with a crossfire motherboard.
The above poster is correct. As far as ram goes, DDR2 is still the way to go. You can get 2-4 times the capacity of DDR2 for the price of DDR3. DDR2 will be along for quite some time and you can get the ABSOLUTE top of the line quality DDR2 for the same price as just "so-so" DDR3. My personal recommendation would be to go with DDR2. Unless of course you want to use the new chipsets comming out like x48 or 780i or 780a.
